The present invention relates generally to a lettering apparatus or lettering system and more particularly to a lettering apparatus having an improved means for interfacing the printer and the keyboard.
Various forms of lettering apparatus currently exist in the prior art. Many of these are dry lettering type apparatus to which the present invention is particularly applicable. A typical lettering apparatus of this type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,333 dated Jan. 6, 1981. In general, such an apparatus includes a lettering station, a means for supplying a printing tape and a printing ribbon at the printing station, a rotatable font for positioning a character in alignment at the print station and a force generation means. The force generation means creates a printing force at the printing station to transfer an image of the aligned character from the printing ribbon to the printing tape. Initially these lettering apparatus were manually operated and required the manual rotation of the character font or disk to position a desired character in alignment at the printing station.
Subsequently, the manual lettering apparatus was automated by adding a keyboard or other data input means and a motor for automatically rotating the character font to the proper character. An example of such an automated lettering apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,708 issued July 31, 1984. Various attempts have also been made to automate existing manual lettering apparatus by retrofitting the same with a keyboard or other similar data input means.
Although many of the presently existing automated lettering apparatus function satisfactorily in many respects there are several ways in which they can be improved. For example, the apparatus currently available are either wholly contained within a single housing, and therefore not retrofittable, or are capable of being retrofitted. For those intended for retrofitting, the retrofitting process is quite complicated and expensive and requires a significant level of expertise. Because of this, the current system tend to discourage the automation of a previously purchased manual lettering apparatus or tend to discourage a purchaser from initially acquiring a manual system with the intent of acquiring an automated attachment when such a feature is needed or desired. Thus, there is a need in the art of lettering apparatus for a system which permits quick, uncomplicated and inexpensive conversion from a manual lettering system to an automated lettering system.